Lawyers Fight War on Poverty

Raun J. Rasmussen, executive director of Legal Services NYC, writes: Fifty years after Attorney General Robert Kennedy challenged the legal community in the War on Poverty, one thing is unassailable: civil legal services have become an essential part of the fight for equal justice and against poverty.

By Raun J. Rasmussen|February 14, 2014 at 12:00 AM

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In 1964, U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy challenged the legal community “to enlist our skills and ourselves in the unconditional war on poverty to which President Johnson has summoned us all.” He spoke shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court established a right to counsel for criminal defendants in Gideon v. Wainright. Kennedy said: “We have secured the acquittal of an indigent person&mdash;only to abandon him to eviction notices, wage attachments, repossession of goods and termination of welfare benefits.”

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